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Feb 24 / 5:07am

Solar Stormwatch wants YOU

Solar Stormwatch volunteers can spot these storms and track their progress across space towards the Earth. Such storms can be harmful to astronauts in orbit and have the potential to knock out communication satellites, disrupt mobile phone networks and damage power lines. With the public's help, Solar Stormwatch will allow solar scientists to better understand these potentially dangerous storms and help to forecast their arrival time at Earth.

The more people looking at the beautiful videos collected from NASA's STEREO spacecraft, the more discoveries we will make. If you want to take part, do log on to http://www.solarstormwatch.com.

Filed under // astronomy crowdsourcing earth science solar flare solar storm

Aug 26 / 7:36pm

sharing a moment

In a conversation today, Henry Gustav Molaison came up and became a topic. He was, according to wikipedia:

was a memory-impaired patient who was widely studied from the late 1950s until his death

He lost some memory after brain surgery and could not form new memories since. And became an important tool into how the human brain works. However, according to Tanaka, the big lesson to us all comes from this fact:

Henry loved to do crossword puzzles, play bingo, watch TV, and socialize with the people who took care of him.

He was willing to be studied and help in any way possible. He really lived in the moment. And enjoyed it. That doesn't mean he was reckless, he just like the people around him. And wasn't burdened by resentment or regret. A lot of positive lessons can be taken from that.

And on that note, I give you this short film, sent by Naomi:

And just so we can connect to the recent science and Carl Sagan posts, for those who haven't seen, the Pale Blue Dot speech:

I might be romanticizing things too much. But screw it, I'm sharing this with you.

Filed under // astronomy brain carl sagan cosmos film memory moment neurology neuroscience pale blue dot science short space video voyager wikipedia

Aug 25 / 7:48pm

Galileo 400

400 years ago today Galileo Galilei publicly demonstrated his telescope for the first time. Influencing numerous scientists and literally bringing new light to our understading of the universe. Quoting Stephen Hawking: